Bern 06 - TRIP TO ITALY

I came from Italy about a week ago and only now managed to put all the photos together for an update on my blog. There are about 500 photographs so be patient when viewing the sideshows. I have done a different layout for the photos this time since the older format was too labor intensive. The slide shows are divided into 9 rolls of film and most of the slides have descriptive names of places and events taking place. One of the rolls was lost in the developing shop so you wouldn't be able to see the St. Marco square photos, from Venice until they find the roll. Enjoy... 

Caution: some fotos will take time to load. Be patient.

Roll 009: Day 01.Night train to Mantova shots and some of the early shot in Mantova. The train from Bern was a sleeping train with 6 bed in a room. The most claustrophobic I have ever felt. The further we switched to Italian trains the dirtier they got.

Roll 010: Day 01. Still in Mantova. Lunch time shots in front of some old deconstructed church, Canal Locks, Random small church that is lusciously decorated, School of commerce with extreme attention to details and textures and materials of construction, and finally Leon Battista Alberti's Duomo di Mantova interior and exterior shots.

Roll 011: Day 01. A little longer in Mantova. Stopped at Duomo di Mantova Piazza for a rest before the train to Verona. First shots of the city: the hotel, main town square, with a mini coliseum, walking around the streets, the real Romeo and Juliet balcony from which the play started, the tagged walls, with my trace on them(see if you find), a local agora, Castel Vecchio at night trip with lots of our shots and shots of the city at night, a trip to a local kids playground when things got a little crazy, and finally reaching the Bank designed by Carlo Scarpa.

Roll 012: Day 02. Woken up early with sour faces and ready to conquer the damn city. First we came back to the bank in hopes to get a tour or at least to look at the inside but with no luck. Then a shopping spree at some of the poshest boutiques with those boy band shots followed. In the eve finally made it to the Castel Vecchio to get a look at Scarpas exhibition spaces where we spent lots of time...

Roll 013: Day 02. Still lingering in the Castel Vecchio and spending a whole role of film to get those phenomenal panoramic shots that took nights later on to stitch. Hope I did a decent job. Pay attention to the intense easels created by Scarpa to be devised at the exhibition for paintings. Later that day we visited the old Amphitheater at the other end of the city taking eve and night shots of the city from both banks, and some of the shots of the ruins themselves. We didn't forget the boy band pics of course and some furious hakey sack game at the base of the amphitheater.

Roll 014: Day 03. Early morning road-trip to Vicenza where on the way in we stopped in Vila la Rotunda. Here we were to take some shots of the famous building and take a piss of the cliff. Later on we drove into the actual city of Vicenza to walk the Paladio street full of his creations. Sit back and look at the beautiful structures yet with rotten bases and dirty streets. Too good to tear down and to lazy to fix. Dying city in my opinion. Later that day on the way to Venice westopped by in the Brioni Tomb by Scarpa once again, to be impressed by the freedom to do what he pleased and the fine outcomes e achieved. You might see photos of some of the European cars we used to drive; small and cute, and very efficient - €11 to get from Verona to Vicenza to Venice.

Roll 015: Day 03. Some more pictures from the tomb...

Roll 016: Day 03. Still that day or more accurately night we arrived in Venice to drop off our cars and get to our hotels. The photos you'll see are from the promenade before bed we had,  to take some night shot and get out first look and Venice; stinky, filthy, dirt, foggy, claustrophobic, moist and scary Venice. Beware of dog shit all over the place!!!

Day 04. Later in the morning we discovered Venice in a lot nicer light. Not as disgusting and with much more obvious hints of romanticism that everyone has been talking about. However, it is funny to discover crying women sitting on bridge steps all over the place. I take it that men just go brezerk over there.

As day progressed the place got really worm towards the 15 degrees Celsius in mid February. You might find some of the last night's photos with our hotel entrance in the end of the roll.

Roll 017: Day 04. Here you'll see the school of architecture entrance and some of its insides. Entrance is designed by Scarpa - of course:).  Later on you will see photos of the trip by water bus number one over through the main canal of Venice and over to the human made island with the exhibition similar to that of Expo, with constructs from different countries, with Israel, Canada, Australia, Russia etc.

Roll 018: Day 04. Last hours in Venice before we take the noon train to Milan to enjoy a non dying Italian contemporary city with lots of Ukrainian speaking people to my surprise. Later that day we returned to Bern late at night.

Enjoy...